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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

LOOKING CLOSELY ALONG THE SHORE

Frank Serafini has two new LOOK CLOSELY books out this summer--the first two in what looks to be a really good nonfiction series.

I picked up LOOK CLOSELY ALONG THE SHORE when I was in Portland last week. The photos are amazing-as I expected. Serafini is a nature photographer so I figured these photos would be good and they were.

The book works like a game--the reader sees a small circle with part of the photograph revealed. The author invites us to look very closely and think about what the photo may be. When we turn the page, we get our answer along with a large photo and more information. I love the set up of this "answer" page. A very large photo that takes up about 2/3 of the 2-page spread. On the left side of each photo, the author provides 2 paragraphs about the object tat we see. He gives us lots of interesting information--things that are interesting to both kids and adults.I was pleasantly surprised with how much information the text provided.

There is lots to love about this new series. I love the photos. They are photos that you can look at for a very long time--gorgeous. I love the gameness of the book. Kids will enjoy guessing the object that they see in the partial photos. And I love the information provided. I am always looking for good nonfiction books and this one provides lots more information than I was expecting on each page. Because Serafini is a photographer and a writer, the writing is crafted well. I can see using it as a mentor text with kids when they are learning to write nonfiction text.

I plan to buy all 4 once they are out. There is another out now (LOOK CLOSELY THROUGH THE FOREST) and 2 new ones are due out in July--one on the desert and one about the garden. Looking forward to those too!

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About Us

Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.

Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic) and The Joy of Planning (Choice Literacy). She is also a regular contributor to Choice Literacy.

Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers.